Monsignor takes stand in sex abuse case

STOCKTON - The second-highest ranking official in the Diocese of Stockton took the stand Thursday in the civil trial against the Rev. Michael Kelly of Lockeford's St. Joachim Catholic Church.

Keith Reid

STOCKTON - The second-highest ranking official in the Diocese of Stockton took the stand Thursday in the civil trial against the Rev. Michael Kelly of Lockeford's St. Joachim Catholic Church.

Kelly is accused of committing child sex abuse in the mid-1980s.

Monsignor Richard Ryan told the jury that he was the official who was notified that Kelly was being accused by a 37-year-old man of sexual abuse.

Kelly's accuser is a former altar boy who claims to have repressed memories of abuse he said he suffered at Annunciation School.

Ryan took the stand for roughly two hours Thursday, taking questions from the plaintiff's attorney.

Kelly has been accused of tickling, rough-housing and swimming with children in the past. Ryan told the jury that such conduct is "inappropriate," although he said it is not necessarily sexual in nature.

The plaintiff alleges Kelly spent time baby-sitting him and his sister in the 1980s. Ryan confirmed testimony that Kelly first said he did not recall baby-sitting, then later testified that he remembered it.

"I simply considered it a memory lapse," Ryan said.

The majority of questions asked of Ryan were not allowed by Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt because they were focused on action or non-action taken by the diocese to prevent sexual abuse by Kelly.

McNatt said the trial has two phases - one to determine Kelly's actions and one to determine whether the diocese was aware of sexual misconduct by the priest. Questions of the second phase are not relevant to the first phase, McNatt said.

Ryan will take the stand again today, beginning at 10 a.m. Kelly, ill on Thursday, is scheduled to take the stand when he recovers.